Half Life 2, Episode 3
by DarkMasterStarr
Summary: The consequence of Eli's death, the Borealis, and the mystery of the "G-Man" is uncovered finally to Gordon Freeman's eyes but will it be something he and his allies can handle? Episode 3: The Race to the Borealis begins and not only is Freeman after it.
1. Enter the Borealis, Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own _Half-Life 1_, _Half-Life 2_ and all its episodic sequels.

Warning: Spoilers! If you haven't played _Half-Life_ and its sequels and you despise spoilers, I suggest you do _not _read this. Other than that, enjoy fellow readers.

Half-Life 2, Episode 3

Veils and rings of darkness befell him, as voices came to his ears, as did visions. From driving to White Forest, to a simple talk with Alyx, Gordon's vision and hearing was put to us in his inactive state. And then, like always, came a guide's talking…

_"Dr. Freeman…It ssssseemsssss it hasssss been an eternity sssssince we last… ssssspoke." _The ethereal man's voice entered Gordon Freeman's mind as the darkness swallowed Gordon's body but not his face. The man, the "G-Man" – as said in the mind of Freeman – was standing in the darkness, almost smiling darkly at the silent man. _"Well, in retrospect, it hassss only been a hour sssssince Mr. Vance's…_" He seemed to chuckle very lightly at that _"… unfortunate passing."_

The sounds of Alyx's painful wails and depressed sobs entered his ears, from where she was cradling the fallen Eli Vance in her arms, until he was forced away from her.

_"I have…let you ssssssleep for sssssome time now, to let you rest from your perillesssss journeyssss. It was to the advice of my colleaguessss." _The background lightened up, as Freeman saw the "G-Man" sit at a desk where a strange logo was flickering on and off. Freeman thought it was simple a random office at Black Mesa or maybe, the Combine compound. This, however, seemed whiter, livelier.

The logo was named "Aperture Science". The name seemed familiar to him….

_"Dr. Freeman, I applaud you for your hard work up to now. First, your work at Black Mesa and…" _He stopped with a slight chuckle. _"Controlling Xen's border world. Soon, you entered a catacomb of dangerssssss, a dystrophic world of which the human race was enslaved and oppressed. Proving true to your name, you, Dr. Freeman, were the key in liberating Mankind from its oppressorssssss. And you encountered _Her._"_

The screen flickered briefly, giving Gordon a second to look at it. The screen lit up Alyx's form.__

The "G-Man" smiled briefly before speaking. _"_Sssssshe _is another one of the keyssssss I hold. Ssssssshe has not one phantom of a thought of ssssssssuch. And you, with your code of ssssssilence, it would seem that would not be of a fear for her to find out."_

"Dr. Freeman, when I gave you the task of ssssssseeing her to the base of White Forest, I expected you to have… problemssssss. However, you proved to be adeptly aware of the environment in order to sssssssurvive and with your friendssssss, you were able to ssssssee her there. And that is why, Dr. Freeman, I am most impressed by. There's only been one of my… employeesssss that have impressed me, as did you. Perhapsssss… you meet him." The "G-Man" smiled, darkening down the room again.

_"Thissssss will be… one of your last adventuressssss throughout this time and place, Dr. Freeman. And then, you can rest for another fifteen yearssssss…"_

"And maybe I will sssssssshared a ssssssecret that you so desperately want…" The "man's" voice disappeared.

Gordon's green eyes were locked on the boat that said the name "Borealis".

**Chapter 1: Enter the Borealis, Part 1**

For once, Gordon Freeman did not awake at the sounds of a moving train, speeding towards an unknown place to him, nor was he greeted with the familiar smell of sulfur and cracking fires under the rubble that was on top of him. This time, he didn't wake up, head towards the sky where he saw the train he rode to get away from City 17 destroyed and derailed. Instead, he woke up, comfortably. He didn't even feel the durable but somewhat uncomfortable HEV suit that became his icon, along with his trust crowbar.

He shifted his blurry green eyes and saw white sheets. The sheets weren't dirt, surprisingly, but then again, this was the first time he was in a bed since his long trip. The "sleep" he was in before didn't compare to this warmth, this comfort. For once in his life again, he felt the fabric of a pillow and the comatose-like state the "G-Man' put him in.

"G-Man"… what was he? Though Gordon could not stress himself to say it out loud, he, however, had mixed opinions of the "G-Man". For one, the power of the "G-Man" infuriated or scared (or possibly both) people aware of his presents. Freeman remembered the ambiguous words of the Xen master, the Nihilanth. He also remembered Dr. Breen's sly words that could possibly tie him to the "G-Man" as well, not to mention his former peer, Eli Vance, knew of the "man's" presence as well and it made him afraid and angry at the same time. Finally, if it was possibly, the Vortigaunts were especially aware of the presence of the "G-Man" and they, with their older form of the language Gordon Freeman spoke, left hints that they did know of his presence.

In a way, like any human who didn't understand something, Gordon Freeman felt a slight bubble of anger erupt in him but extinguished it – his anger was going to get him to the bottom of this mystery. Maybe he will find out in time that the question to the "G-Man" and what was his plans on the world…

…and his plans on Gordon Freeman.

For now, he was in a bed and he was kind of enjoying it.

"Gordon?!"

_'Damn it…' _Were the silent thoughts of Mr. Freeman, growling at the prospect, yet again, never to rest in a bed like in years…

Although he enjoyed who walked through, Ms. Alyx Vance, she was the benefactor of Gordon's most hated enemy: the art of talking. Sometimes he wished there was another person in this world that was as mute as him. (1)

Alyx smiled and jumped to his bed, giving him a hug again. "You're okay… thank god."

Gordon lightly gave her a smile but staying true to his character, did not smile. _'And you too, my dear. But…'_

Troubling thoughts of who just passed, Mr. Eli Vance – Alyx's father and one of his most beloved mentors – ringed through his head. He though small about how he was amazed at her strength… her father just died and she was smiling, upbeat like the world just was at peace. Whether she was dealing with her father's death inwardly or she was just pending her time for solace from another, mostly likely him since the adventures they have been together with each other. Freeman, although he has stated he hated people's noise at times and he was somewhat of an outcast – irony, he noted cynically, as many people worshipped him like a messiah, much akin to Dr. Breen's words –, he enjoyed her company.

Alyx was an excitable woman indeed: a fusion of intelligence, beauty and power, something that attracted him to her. He have to admit, women of the 21st century, or rather of his time, didn't have the blend like her, at least not many that he met. She surely was just like her mother in many ways. Yes, Freeman had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Vance in person before and he had to say, he did have somewhat of an amicable respect towards the late Eli Vance's deceased wife. Alyx did remind him of her but probably more beautiful then her mother…

Gordon grinned, a little slowly, at her need to grab his hand. It made him happy that she enjoyed his company. "Feeling better, boyfriend?" She joked.

_'Nice humor too, although I wouldn't mind so much…' _Being a man of little to no words, he nodded without a sound. She smiled brightly but then frowned. "You… remembered, right?"

_'Unfortunately.' _Seeing him sigh and nod, she let go of his hand and looked towards the floor. "You know… I'm going to miss him…"

_'I didn't think differently…' _He commented inwardly. "But… I just don't have the time…. To mourn for him, we don't have the time." She said, with an edge in her throat climbing up quickly. "The Combine…. If I don't have time to mourn for my father, I'll just avenge him in the meantime."

Gordon looked at her with some surprise in him. Her words were steely cold, frigid, gelid. Alyx Vance was a kind of person who never backed down from her words and it was terrifying.

---

"We're leaving in three hours." She said, almost quietly at him. He himself, seethed at the thought of leaving his comfortable bed. _Best bed I had in a long time_, Gordon thought inwardly. _I won't get another like this._ The thought of the "G-Man" snuffing out that plan was plausible, maybe perhaps true. "Since we thought you was hurt, we took off the HEV suit off your body." He saw a little tinge of red on her face. "Um, you came out to be alright."

Gordon smirked and thought, _'Still got it.'_

"However, the HEV suit is damaged beyond anymore repair." Gordon frowned at that. Alyx continued. "Most of its capabilities have been put to the max _and I wonder why is that_?" She whispered the last part loud enough for Gordon to hear. He whistled innocently, out of character. Alyx's amused glance also had the assumption that Freeman was going to remain silent at that comment. She smirked a little, even besides the fact that these times were as grim as they were going to get.

"Anyway, good news is that Dr. Kliener is working out that problem. In fact, he's taking the working pieces of the HEV suit, so you can definitely look forward for a flashlight that works longer." She said, amusing Gordon at her use of humor. "Bad news though, Dr. Kliener was shipped out of White Forest followed by that sneak attack…" She digressed from the topic; giving her ample time to clench her fist up, squeeze her gloved hand to see if they would turn as pale as Gordon's skin. She sighed to continue with, "And the new version of the HEV suit has been shipped out with him."

Reading his mind, she said, "He was shipped out to one of another Resistance base out there, Silver Basin. It's like four hours from here… by car."

Gordon frowned deeply at that but Alyx smiled. "You seem to forget what we have: a helicopter. Originally, we were going to the Borealis but the Silver Basin is the place we need to go first. With airtime, we should be there, an hour tops, as long as we don't get into trouble from there. I don't think we will, since the Combine forces were severely damaged thanks to the super portal closing and their attention will be pushed more at recuperating their forces from it.

_'Hmm, well, at least I get some sleepy time.' _The other things that she told him, at this point, were all good. And this would play in his plans to come in turn with his beauty sleep. __

As he shifted to close his eyes, Alyx jumped on top of him and said, "Oh and if you think you got more time to sleep, bucko, then you think wrong. While you were sleeping like a princess, I was up, patrolling the base with some rebels. So, get up and get to work." She smiled as he groaned pitifully at the prospect of getting up. "You'll find your gravity gun, crowbar and shotgun on the table. If you don't mind, the rest of your weapons were borrowed." She grinned.

As he jumped out of bed, he noticed that tinge of red on her face came back, full force. "Jeez, Gordon, would you mind putting on a shirt and some pants? God!"

He grinned toothily at her expression. _'Yep, for an old man, I still got it.' _(1)

---

After finding clothing akin to Resistance-standard clothing, Gordon Freeman grabbed his crowbar and put it on the side of him. While not as groundbreaking as the Hazard Environment Suit's storage capabilities, he found a utility belt was handy indeed. He put his crowbar in one of the open slots. He also found that his shotgun holstered in a "stash" on his back. Gordon felt something he has felt in some time now: solid clothing, albeit they were war clothing. And for the first time, he noticed that the world he was around was very… cold. No wonder everybody was in suits, jackets or hood sweaters. Gordon felt goosebumps on his skin, responding to the cold, a little shiver came to him quickly. Alyx laughed briefly at his wordless tirade, fatedly getting a quick heated glance at her. She waved her hands in her defense, before putting them down, clearing her throat.

"Y-You look good in them." The bespectacled man looked at her with some bemusement; he wasn't too sure if she was joking, trying to hold back her laughter or she really meant it. Looking at her closely, he noticed her outfit was a little… different.

She stood, her hair still in its captive prison, in her headband but she had a green jacket and a bluish-green bodysuit on, the black Greek Lambda symbol pinned on her chest. (2) When she raised her eyebrow, maybe misunderstanding what he was doing exactly, he sighed and said, "Your outfit."

"W-What?" She stuttered. _'Did-did-'_

He sighed again, almost noticeably pouting and she blinked. After her blinking, she was devoured into her chuckling, turning it to laughter. "Wow, when I said you were a man of few words, I didn't think you even spoke one word."

"…I don't like talking…" He said, now pouting.

She laughed, but with his emerald green-eyed stare at her, she stopped quickly. "Okay, okay, I get it. My old clothing was getting a little 'strong', if you get what I mean. And so, I changed into this. It doesn't look bad, does it?" She twisted her petit frame a little, letting him pry his eyes on her body.

It didn't look good… It looked perfect. "Err, it suits you." He said, grinning at her smiling.

"Nice pun." She grinned back.

He blinked and took a quick though. _'As matter of fact, that _was _a pun.'_

"At least you like it. Maybe we can fit a leotard on your body, Gordon."

He frowned and again, for the third time today, glared at her humor. _'Smart, sexy but has a evil sense of humor.'_

"How much longer do we have?" He said, putting on his new black combat boots, liking the way they were on him.

"Quite talkative now, huh? Why didn't you talk before?"

"I don't talk in front of strangers." He said, sarcastically.

She smirked at his sarcasm. "Nice. You have a sense of humor. Funny, I thought you were trying to be a geeky-looking doctor with a forte to kill instead."

"'Geeky'?" He repeated, raising an eyebrow. _'So, your true personality comes to play.'_

"Although, I think I'm attracted highly to nerds." She smiled, her smile getting more playfully when his face lit up. "Are you _blushing_?"

Gordon offered no answer for that, instead returning to his soundless stature again. She smiled innocently. "What? Cat got you your tongue?"

"So when are we leaving?" He reiterated, not even commenting on her question.

---

Grabbing the iconic Gravity Gun off the table that was first giving to him by the same woman who liked teasing him, he sighed. _'I should have just not risked talking. I probably would have lived more peacefully with her thinking I was a pervert.' _He thought almost scornfully at his decisions. Like the long line of mistakes of his life – Joining Black Mesa was the first one of his list of being a bad choice, though breaking his personal code of silence was becoming, rapidly, one of his worst blunders in his life – he regretted this one greatly. Who knew Alyx Vance was so vindictive?

Entering more ammo in his shotgun, fulfilling its limits of 6, he cocked it. Grabbing spare shells, he put them in an inner pocket of his new jacket. He smiled grimly at this: what a dirty job. Alyx herself was preparing her modified automatic pistol, grabbing a couple bullets for her gun.

The time for jokes was over; the time for relaxing for a minute was over. Gordon didn't have time to sleep and Alyx didn't have time for mourning.

She stared into the helicopter's empty and untouched windows and she stared back into Gordon's emerald eyes. "You ready?"

He only let the pumping of the shotgun be his answer.

---

End.

Note: This is my first Half-Life Chapter, hope I did okay. I tried my best to keep Gordon in his character, but like most, I decided to add the ability for him to talk. He will only say things when he has to and not things for nothing. Alyx, as I would imagine how she would be saddened at the death of Eli, I decided that Alyx would be too strong and stubborn to cry about it for too long and would rather focus on the task at hand, the last task her father gave her: to get to the Borealis and destroy the superior technology on the ship. Since I adore the series of _Half-Life_, I will update as best I can. I decided that I'd better take a small break from even doing Animes as I can't stretch them like I can with series like _Half-Life_, so this will be the only series I'll be doing in some time. It's like _Evangelion_, I adore the series but I don't think I can do numerous stories like _Naruto_, so all my fans, don't worry about this so much. Call it a project I'm interested in.

Anyway, Chapter 2 will soon hit shelves as soon I can get around to it. It was fun doing this chapter.

Trivia

1) "_'Yep, for an old man, I still got it.'" _– Gordon is joking on his apparent, supposed age in the _Half-Life_ stories. It's like in _Avatar: Last Airbender_; Gordon was "chronically frozen" via the "G-Man's" unknown powers to warp time, space and the future. So, Gordon is somehow aware of this, and jokes on it.

2) "She stood, her hair still in its captive prison, in her headband but she had a green jacket and a bluish-green bodysuit on, the black Greek Lambda symbol pinned on her chest." – It pays a homage to Alyx's original outfit scheme by developers. In the Beta version of Half-Life 2, she, along with other characters, was different in many ways. She wore a green jacket with a blue-green bodysuit with the Black Mesa symbol on it. Hell, she looked slightly different and she wasn't even the child of Eli! (Eli wasn't Eli Vance, but instead Eli _Maxwell_) Personally, I like her outfit and I decided to resurrect it with this homage.

I hoped you liked my chapter!


	2. Enter the Borealis, Part 2

A/N: Okay, note this: this story will be lengthy, probably up to ten chapters or more possibly if I can write it. Um, the chapters will pick up more in length as time rolls by. The last chapter as more than 3,000 words --- that was quite short for somebody who wanted this story to pick up good on the people. It hasn't at all. You guys review now, y'all hear? Anyway, I'll be adding sporadic thoughts to Gordon, not that they are random as in "silly" but rather they don't fit him. It's more of a satire, a humorous side of the story, you know?

Disclaimer: I don't own _Half-Life 1_, _Half-Life 2_ and all its episodic sequels.

Warning: Spoilers! If you haven't played _Half-Life_ and its sequels and you despise spoilers, I suggest you do _not _read this. Other than that, enjoy fellow readers.

Half-Life 2, Episode 3

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**Chapter 2: Enter the Borealis, Part 2**

At this point, Gordon Freeman had the intensive feeling to say, "Are we there yet?" to the spunky Alyx Vance but he decided to go against it. After all, she was flying a complicated machine and his "distractions" fit cause her to lose focus, there ending in a result of fatality. Yes, yes, this was grim of him to think like this but the use of his lampoons such as that gave him the bravado he need. Of course Gordon was fearful; he had only flew in a helicopter once and it wasn't for the sake of a tour around Black Mesa. It was rather training, of course, for something chaotic to happen. Ironically, he thought of the Resonance Cascade back in Black Mesa and the events leading to its downfall.

_Shit, why didn't I just go find a helicopter to get out of there then? _He thought with some perplexity of why he didn't. Angry a little at himself, he calmed down and thought of what would happen if he did? Gordon had to admit it; he was the benefactor of the Cascade but he was also the people's savior indeed. Without him, the Black Mesa Incident would have destroyed and killed every occupant of the base. Even though he only saved a little of the Black Mesa faculty, it was quite enough. After all, Eli Vance, Isaac Kliener and Barney Calhoun were all friends of him indeed and they became beneficial and supportive factors in his endeavors. Not to mention he did save the skin of others, such as Arne Magnusson and left Alyx Vance with a decent way to be brought up correctly, even though the bleak future of which she was faced with wasn't a way a child should live.

It was a damn shame indeed but he was Gordon Freeman and he wouldn't let anybody tell him differently. Breen may have thought of him like he was a pawn to these people but he wasn't…

He was almost a messiah.

The messiah thing didn't blow Gordon Freeman's head up with inflating arrogance. He was flattered, really, but he was kind of saddened by their – almost blind – devotion towards him. Shit, he seen it in Alyx sometimes, like she would live and die with or _for_ him. He knew that he didn't even deserve such attention like this, but he got it, but not all the attention was praise and devotion towards him. Some, like the rest of the world who wasn't a human sympathizer or a Vortigaunt, was hostile towards him and there were so many, armies of enemies who lined up to kill him and it started with Xen, the world of the hostile creatures who all wanted to kill him. And then, it grew to a more humanoid problem: The Combine, who was already desperate to snuff him out and now look. Their tower of power was devoured and they looked pissed, pissed enough to kill Gordon in anyway possible, in the most brutal way possible.

Gordon was then sent to endless armies of them. He wondered – in mid-battle sometimes – if this war would ever end.

He grunted out a solution to that wonder: it was in his hands now. He had the ability to change and form the world, even a little more than the man who was behind the controlling. Gordon was the boy and this place and its dependents were his toys. There weren't some things that he just couldn't control, no matter what he wanted to, like Eli's death or the Resonance Cascade…

Gordon fingered the holstered crowbar as he stared at what he was looking at: outside a helicopter's window.

Alyx, who seemed to be determined on this mission, glared at the skies intensively, never losing her focus. Gordon silently admired her indomitable, almost stony face.

Alyx spoke, "ETA (Estimated time of arrival) should be at least in a hour and a half, Gordon."

He nodded wordlessly, staring back at the windows outside. She laughed a little, "You know, I thought it was going to be trouble like the Combine or something."

He looked at her a little questioning. _'Did you expect Combine to come at us with a Hunter-Chopper or something?'_

However…

_'Speak of the devil.' _"Speak of the devil." Gordon and Alyx said or thought dryly. The only difference was Gordon was bleakly thinking about it when he heard a chopping noise. Sooner coming to his vision, a Hunter-Chopper whistled by, angrily shooting at the two. Gordon growled at the Combine lowly. _'Does everybody in this universe attack first and ask questions later?'_

Alyx herself groaned at the Combine's piercing bullets. "At this rate, we'll be shot out the skies with ease!" She averted her eyes from the window, and jumped up. Gordon looked panicked for a moment but thought more about it, as he seen her slam on a single green button. _Must have been the autopilot mode_, he thought, not giving it so much of another though.

She screamed, "Gordon, come here!"

He jumped up and ran to her with due alarm. She murmured, "Gordon, I can't keep the helicopter in autopilot mode completely. I'm going to need to get back to my position as soon as possibly. We need to take down that Hunter-Chopper. To do so, you would need some hard-arsenal against them. Usually, finding a Tau Cannon would be easy but this vessel doesn't have on. Gordon, you are going to need some explosives for this one. The good news is I found a rocket launcher."

The launcher came to view, with Gordon looking a little surprised: it wasn't the usual, standard RPG (Rocket-Propelled Grenade) he used. It was instead much more bigger. _'I bet _"heavier" _means better.' _It was greenish looking and by the looks of Alyx – she was straining to pick it up – it looked heavy. Grinning crookedly at it, he bored his eyes at her, looking for the answer to his question, "Got some rockets?" He said quietly.

She motioned him to the back, showing off some rockets. "Last time I checked, we got about twenty in the back, so shooting them towards the Combine chopper should be a cinch." She looked at the RPG one more and motioned him to take it. When he did, she smiled a little. "You are pretty strong. And I thought you must be a little wimp under that HEV." He scoffed at her joke. She started again, however with a groan, she said, "Aw, there's only one rocket here that seems to fit in the RPG, Gordon. If you miss, you miss. There's no second chance, Gordon. You got only one shot at this."

He nodded, arming the RPG, putting on one warhead-armed rockets on the launcher. He turned to the big, steel door, where Alyx opened it. Gordon was almost pushed back by the force of the wind. It was violently blowing partially because of the speed the chopper was traveling at. He held himself at the position he was most comfortable with, albeit it was hard since the wind was working against him. He aimed his RPG at the chopper but then, it dropped to his feet due to the deadly precise aim of one Overwatch solider. It didn't hurt him, in face the bullet almost curved in his hand out of sheer luck. The bullet impacted to the steel wall.

"So, I see everything is going peachy back there, huh?" Alyx said, sarcastically.

Ignoring her, out of sheer focus, Gordon glared at the, almost robotic, figure, which looked back at him with a glaze. The solider then picked up his AR2 rifle, and shot at Gordon.

Thinking quickly, he jumped in the back of the steel walls of the helicopter. The pulsating rifle shots pierce the wind's angry blows and stopped when they hit the inner frame of the copter.

Gordon looked at his options here.

1) He couldn't use the shotgun – it was only good for short-range and the chopper was _way _off from being _close_.

2) His crowbar was like the shotgun: only good for short-ranger combat.

3) His pistol worked better at long range but it wasn't as precise, must less strong enough to take out an Overwatch soldier in a couple shots.

4) His RPG was good for one shot only and Gordon was afraid he'd miss and fail to bring it down.

Another time, the Combine shot his pulsating rifle out his AR2. Gordon hissed a little in anger. _'If only I had another… wait…'_

Gordon crawled vastly quick over to the other side of the helicopter, search for other conventional weapons.

_'Grenades?' _He held up the said weapon. _'Nah, it's too risky to rely on grenades, besides my throwing aim is still isn't as good as I want it to be. Maybe I should have been a tad more sporty?' _However, he holstered it, thinking they would definitely come in handy a part of his long day.__

He searched more and looked at the next item. _'A Tec-9? Maybe that would work…' _However, he thought of the distance the chopper was and thought against it. _'Maybe I can use it when I have to deal with armies of enemies at short-range. Thank god I know about weapons so much. I guess being a nerd pays off sometimes.' _He holstered that gun as well.__

However, he smiled when he fished out this weapon. _'Hey, an Assault Rifle and it has a sniper vision too. Good, it'll be easier to take down that stupid solider.'_

Gordon quickly grabbed the weapon and, like a madman, dug around for ammunition. He smiled darkly when he did and armed the gun with a single clip of ammunition. He wiped the smile off his face and blew a breath. He jumped, almost like he was in a cheesy movie, and shot several bullets at the direction. Out of accuracy or just pure, sheer luck, he actually landed a hit in the stomach of the solider as it cried in static radio chatter. The solider discarded his weapon, in chance to grapple his abdomen in howling pain. Gordon sadly chuckled at that as the fallen man, probably was in fright, almost unimaginable. Gordon at this point was happy the enemies decided to wear masks. He didn't think he could look in a man's face he just shot.

However, the solider wasn't down too long, slowly reaching to grab his Pulse Rifle to shoot at Gordon. Gordon quickly used use of the telescope feature on his assault rifle, and sniped the Combine. In turn, the superhuman screamed hollowly one last time, going down permanently. Gordon sighed, briefly resting the rifle on his shoulders. However, the sounds of a coiling Tau Cannon going off stopped him from returning his seat at the front.

Alyx herself yelled over to Gordon. "Gordon, you're going to have to RPG that chopper. I don't think our chopper is indestructible now."

Gordon sighed, holstering the assault rifle on his back with the shotgun and he picked up the RPG and aimed at the chopper. He almost release the trigger but soon, almost sensing his moves, the enemy Hunter-Chopper slams into Alyx's helicopter. He almost fell outside as he held onto the doors for dear life.

Gordon gasped as he briefly looked down, wishing he didn't. He never truly realized just _how _they were and he wished that he were still ignorant to that. The height was… to die for or to die _from_. He averted his eyes from it, to look up at Alyx's terrified form, as she looked at him.

Alyx, sensing trouble, jumped up quickly to find him struggling to get up. "Gordon!!" She screamed, afraid at him falling. She quickly bent down to her knees and held out a hand to him. Alerting Gordon further, he looked up and almost grabbed her hand to be pulled up for safety but he spotted the forgotten. He stared quickly at the RPG and quickly reached for it. Alyx yelled at him. "Gordon, what the f-"

She was silenced when a rocket whistled in the air, square hitting the chopper head on. The screaming and cries of the two other soliders in the Hunter-Chopper was only deafened by the klaxon alarms of the falling helicopter.

Smiling at his handy work, he reached for her hand, which she unconsciously pulled up, in awe at Gordon's power. "God, Gordon! You are brutal!" She grinned at him as he nodded, smiling lightly at her joy. However, this elation was quickly snuffed out as _their _klaxon alarms quickly came on. A female voice from the chopper said immediately, _"ALERT, ALERT!"_

Alyx jumped back in her seat, swearing, "Shit, we're going down fast. Gordon, close the doors in the back. This is going to be rough!!"

He closed the doors, in an effort-full fashion and jumped into his seat as well, putting on his seatbelt. Turned out there was one thing the Hunter-Chopper left to damage them: their erratic shooting pierced the helicopter's already dented armor one too many and left them in freefall. Alyx and Gordon both held back anxious screaming, no matter how much they want to.

Alyx spoke up quickly, and loud enough for Gordon to hear over the alarms. "Gordon, if we don't survive this… I want you to know that I… I-it was a honor fighting by your side." She grasped his gloved hand, surprised to get a squeeze back and nod from him. He felt the same way.

Alyx smiled sadly and whispered a little. Gordon couldn't make all of it, but it sounded like, "… should have told you…" (1)

He let go of the breath he held too long – he was ready to face the end…

---

End.

Note: Jeez, this is like my first action scene I'm actually happy with. I hope I got a little some of it good for you guys. Now, I know the RPG-shooting thing was unrealistic but the game itself is unrealistic with the aliens. I mean it's a video game, right? So, many things could happen that are unrealistic. Besides that, I'm happy with my writing. I hope you are too. Nothing else to say.

Trivia

1) "Alyx smiled sadly and whispered a little. Gordon couldn't make all of it, but it sounded like, "… should have told you…"" – I'm being "ambiguous" here, but I'm sure you can figure out what I mean by this. I'm implying the infamous Gordon-Alyx pairing, like how the developers and the millions of fans want it. I believe when Alyx says "Gordon… take care of yourself" in several sections and segments of the game, she means to tell him that she wishes him luck and she loves – or to a lower extent, likes – him. Or when they are in the core of Episode one and she wants him to "hurry back" – said in a hesitant, worried tone, of course. I know she worries about him a lot, even when she doesn't even know him that well, but of course, it's Gordon, so it isn't much to know. Anyway, that's the pairing in this story: Gordon and Alyx.

Well, kiddies, until next time when I update this. Should be soon, I believe so.

Night.


	3. Intermission: A Short Chapter

A/N: Judging by my peaking interests with _Half-Life 2_, this will be update habitually. When I type it, it should be done at least by the end of the week, maybe days before that. Um, I'm so far happy taking breaks from _Naruto_. Why? I guess, like I said before, I can stretch _Half-Life_ more than _Naruto_, which limits me. Most of the _Naruto_ stories are cliché today and it's annoying seeing these stories. I myself am beleaguered by clichés. It's annoying, I know. I can't think too much about anything too original or interesting and actually finish them. Then again, this _Half-Life_ story is a major cliché, predicting what would happen in _Episode 3_. Well, too bad! Maybe after or during this, I will do some drabbles or something. I just wished more people wrote and read _Half-Life_ stories and then, I could be more resolved writing this. But, hey, at least I'm not getting "scolded" for my mistakes, which the series I just started up is already plagued with them. Anyway, here's another chapter. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own _Half-Life 1_, _Half-Life 2_ and all its episodic sequels.

Warning: Spoilers! If you haven't played _Half-Life_ and its sequels and you despise spoilers, I suggest you do _not _read this. Other than that, enjoy fellow readers.

Half-Life 2, Episode 3

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**Chapter 3: Intermission**

It was harsh and almost made him vomit because of him being upside down. He felt himself, his face and his glasses. Surprisingly, he was okay, albeit a little winded. When he weakly released the seatbelt, he fell on his head, almost causing a concussion. He looked up and almost gasped. Alyx was still intact in her seat, as she lay there, almost sleeping. He released her seatbelt and she fell, harshly, to the ground. She still, however, didn't wake up. He was kind of relaxed she didn't: she didn't want to see the helicopter's form now. It was damaged severely, like for example the plating and armor was dented. The color looked a little chipped off, due to the vicious crash to the ground.

He struggled to open the door, even though the door themselves were dented. When he got outside and dragged her body, he saw even more damage, if it was possible. The propeller, upside-down, was crushed and broken in two, the two flaps themselves were broken in two, with the middle piece to connect them was discarded from the mess. All the glass, belonging to a specific frontal window, was broken belong any repair. Basically, everything was FUBAR – fucked up beyond any repair.

_No time for jokes_, he said, despise a little smile lit on his grim visage. However, he knew he had to be serious. 1) He didn't know where they were. 2) The only person who might know where they were was unconscious. And 3) Look, their only ride was annihilated.

Nice prospect of events, he would say.

He huffed a little with pulling Alyx out the rumble. "Whew! Maybe I should work out more, like Alyx said." He shook his head and stood her up to pick her up in his arms. Now, it seemed much more easier. Although he didn't know where he was, one thing for sure that they couldn't stay there. No matter where they were, a crashed helicopter attracted attention and in this world, attraction was just another synonym for "trouble".

He walked with her until he was in the opening of a deep forest. Thank god it was sunlight, because it seemed to be pretty dark already in the forest. It wouldn't be such a difficult feat if he was in his HEV suit but because the damn thing was broken, he didn't even have a flashlight… or did he? After all, this was probably a used jacket by another Resistance fighter. Hastily searching for a flashlight, he successfully found one. Soon, he dropped Alyx gently to lodge the flashlight in a slot, on his shoulder, just big enough to fit the flashlight.

_'Let's just hope it works.' _He said bleakly in his mind.

His sigh was the signal that it did work albeit it flickered slightly until it came on completely. He flashed throughout the forest, taking sparing looks at it: it was filled with big, healthy oak trees, almost like they were in hand–in-hand with each other, or in this case, branch-in-branch with each other. He, with more bravado than true courage, walked in the forest, carefully with Alyx's inert body, the only thing signaling she was alive was her labored breathing, like she took shots from a hunter.

Gordon grimaced at that memory; he could still see Alyx being stabbed by Hunters in her back and then stomped on with its metallic hooves, while hearing the sadistic, mechanical growls of the synth. He tried erasing the thoughts away but the pained groaning of her, ebbing away life – that was painful to see.

The forest popped up even more – trees spawning into his eyes. It was a mess, a big clomp of green sticking out ever so annoyingly. The trees were packed together, blocking out any traces of sunlight and more shadows and darkness to follow. Gordon Freeman knew better: when the lights go out, bad things go rustling in the darkness. In most cases, they were the occasional headcrab and their little dependents, the Zombies. He didn't know how much times that was the case, especially when they, Alyx and Gordon, were trying to make their ways up to the surface and escape City 17 for good and what came around, a zombie… who's horrid, almost agonizingly harsh screams reminded him why he hated his job.

It was another ten to twenty minutes, carrying the lightweight that was Alyx and he felt his arms turn into jelly. His eyes glazed over, making him look very tired. He glazed even more, until he looked ahead of him and he had gotten excited: a forest clearing, with great speckles of light. He sighed in a little relief. Dropping Alyx gingerly on the ground, he dropped dully on the ground himself, not caring for the hard "thud" the ground gave him and instead, he let himself lay down there, looking at the sun-driven skies. _'How long has it been since I looked up in the skies and just… relaxed like this?'_

He remembers that it was ever so long that he did this. He remembered back in his childhood and remembered the small things that he and father used to do together. Gordon's father and him were never so close, much less damn right awkward. His father wasn't really his father. His mother remarried when his real father walked out of their life and went on to die on some type of drug. Anyway, his stepfather was more close to him than his father and sometimes, even his mother. His mother didn't understand him at times, especially his hobbies and needs to experiment and build things. His stepfather, who could have said something spiteful under his breath, like his mother, did not. Rather, he almost ignored it. Instead, his stepfather's head lied in the clouds.

Gordon remembered times where he would just lay on a hill with his stepfather, looking at a blue, sunlit sky, whenever Seattle wasn't raining or having any other bad weather (1). His stepfather never really did this with Gordon's half-sibling (2), his stepfather's son simply because his son was never too keen about his father as much as Gordon was about his. Gordon relayed the memory just letting those clouds pass by them. They were angry or sorrowful. Instead, they were just placid – placid and almost peaceful in their passing.

For another try at it, Gordon looked up in the sky with the fallen Alyx Vance and closed his eyes, envisioning again. Peace and simplicity entered his mind, enough to make him sleep and he did. This time, Gordon felt himself let go but for once in a long time, didn't feel the touches and talking of the "G-Man". Just a peaceful moment with Alyx and his clouds.

….

Gordon stirred a little, looking up to see a more redden sky. He looked at his surroundings a little and decided it was time to leave a little but a feeling of weight _holding_ him down and a groan ran out. He looked and saw the "weight". It was Alyx Vance, latched on him, snoring lightly, soundly. He smiled a thin smile as he looked at her gently and went down again.

He latched his arm onto her. Let this crazy world protect them at least for the night.

End.

A/N: Short chapter, I know. However, I just couldn't think of much when I set up this situation. I was pleased, a little, at the fighting in Chapter 2, so this ended up (this chapter, I mean) a little mediocre. The stuff I added on Gordon's background is, for the most of it, was untrue. However, some of it is true.

Trivia

1) "Gordon remembered times where he would just lay on a hill with his stepfather, looking at a blue, sunlit sky, whenever Seattle wasn't raining or having any other bad weather." – Seattle, Washington is where Gordon's hometown is, supposedly said by the producers of _Half-Life_. I didn't make up anything. Oh, yeah, the little joke about Seattle having bad weather… just a joke, people. I didn't mean in a matter of being mean. I heard that Washington (state) and/or Oregon have bad weather. No offense.

2) "His stepfather never really did this with Gordon's half-sibling." – In the first _Half-Life_ game, an Easter egg is in the locker room of Dr. Freeman, has a picture of a baby in it. Marc Laidlaw, computer designer of the series Half-Life, offered the idea of maybe it was a nephew or niece. Thus, I added a half-sibling for Gordon.

Now, I know this chapter wasn't the best at all but I promise it will be better the next chapter. I'll see y'all soon. Review please. I been seeing people have been viewing this story but yet nobody has been reviewing? Don't be shy! Your opinions are most welcomed, unless you plan to say unflattering things of me such as "U suc, lik tis story!" or something like that.

See ya.


	4. Almost Easy

A/N: Okay, back to update _Half-Life. _Seriously, when is Value going to release _Half-Life 2: Episode 3 _already? I'm itching for that game now. What could possibly happen, ne? After reading back the former chappies, I'm pleased with how it came out. Not too many mistakes, not bothering about how each chappie is lengthy or not, just fun predicting. Aight, time to get the show on the road.

Disclaimer: I don't own _Half-Life 1, Half-Life 2 _or any of the episodic saga.

Warning: Spoilers! If you didn't play _Half-Life _or any of the sequels and want to get into _Half-Life_, do not read this story, as I might relate to Gordon Freeman and the Resistance's past experiences.

**Enjoy!  
**  
Half-Life 2, Episode 3

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**Chapter 4: Almost Easy**

Ah, it would take time to get used to not having the HEV suit in his command and will. The suit was helpful in this kinds of situations; the kinds where he was cold and he need warmth. He rustled and got up slowly from his flowery, grassy bed he did not lay and regarded his surroundings with a nod. _Still in the forest, I see_, he thought. Where else would he be at, he reasoned with himself.

He stretched a little and for once felt his bones release all the air they didn't let out – it had been almost fifteen years since he let that excess air out. It felt all too good. He even scratched his back nonchalantly and stared down...

And down...

And down...

'_Err, not that I deny that I become crazy from this crazier world but... Wasn't Alyx clutching onto me when we went to sleep?'_Gordon sighed and said, "Now where did she run off too... How troublesome."

"I'm troublesome, eh?" Gordon turned around to the source and not surprising, Alyx stood there, smiling, as if the last hours didn't happen.

He nodded at her and stared down at her, regarding her of being okay, if not, damn right chipper. _Guess because she is a morning person_, he said humorlessly. _'As matter of fact... what time IS it?'_"How long have we taken our little 'break'?" Gordon softly said.

"Maybe two or three hours? It's hard to tell when we were in such a hurray, we don't know what time we left." Alyx replied nonchalantly.

"Are we off-course?"

"Unfortunately."

"By how many miles?"

She shrugged in the best way she could. "Probably by a few miles..."

"Is this future built on uncertainty?" He muttered. It was still loud though.

"What?" She said confusedly.

He blinked. _'Guess I never REALLY talked about how I was frozen for fifteen years by a suited man, a cold face and a briefcase. How THAT slipped my mind, I do not know.' _"Nothing." He muttered again, trying to change the subject. He knew he should have keep his code of silence and just watched things instead of talk about them.

"Hmm, well, I'm knowledgeable about this forest here. The forest leads to a more mountainous area. In the mountains, lie Silver Basin, ergo, follow the yellow brick road, Dorothy, and we'll be fine."

He ignored the last part of "Dorothy" and asked her, "Um, where are my weapons?"

She blinked and intelligently said, "Oh!" She grinned and rubbed her head sheepishly. "Well, you look uncomfortable in your nap, so I took off the jacket."

He blinked, giving her a weird look, to give her more sheepish smiles; he looked down at himself and said inwardly, _'No wonder I was cold.' _He had the blue civilian jumpsuit on, which was flimsy at best. Compared to the usual wear for civilians, that jacket Alyx took off of him – which he will not ask how she did it – looked mighty toasty now. He was giving back his jacket and then, slowly the weapons he stored there. It wasn't a lot since the crash. He had this: A USP Match pistol, a SPAS-12 shotgun, the trusty-rusty crowbar and the iconic Gravity gun. No extras there for him. _Damn, and I was looking forward to use that Tec-9_, he pouted in his mind. In his inner pocket, he found just ONE grenade for him, giving him a grunt of displease.

Ah well, beggars _can't _be choosers and the Resistance were just made of beggars.

He didn't bother to check all of his weapons and instead just opted to grab the shotgun and cock it. Alyx nodded. "Yeah, we should move with haste; no doubt our chopper that crashed is going to leaving the Combine an invitation to step in the forest and desecrate it to find us, as did they did to most of the world by now." She grunted out, being un-lady-like. However, Gordon could level. Anybody in a situation of possibly death _everyday _because they were fighting along the Resistance surely would tough up. Alyx was that girl: the girl would could joke, smile, flirt and blush one second and hit, run, kill and break another.

One of the reasons he liked working with Ms. Vance. She wasn't there just for eye-candy. She had brains and brawn. She was definitely not a liability.

Alyx had made a step and gesture for him to come. As always, she had a good sense of direction. Of course, she did say they were heading to the mountains because their safe haven was there and all they had to do is follow the mountain to get there. Obviously, she knew this. Gordon looked back briefly, hoping there wasn't a trace of evidence there for the Combine's pleasure. They most certainly need less enemies and more time. Of course, God was never on Gordon's side. Eh, he was never a religion man. If anything science and its infinite theories, possibilities and facts were his religion. Ah, to be back into his Black Mesa uniform, a white lab coat instead of green battle-torn jackets with one or two holes possibly caused by a bullet.

The two zoomed through the forest's sky-scraping trees like madmen, trying to not hear even one radio chatter from a deep voice, or the sounds of marching down the grassy path they led. Gordon's feet never hurt like this. The HEV suit again gave the perks of feeding the user constant adrenaline, to slow the impact of trauma, or pain; he could run forever in the suit and never truly feel the pain of walking around, let alone running around. Yeah, he definitely got his cardio workout with the HEV suit without the trouble of pain and the out-of-breath-ness. God, he must have missed the damn suit to actually be talking about it.

The two were unfortunately greeted by the roaring noises of a Hunter-Chopper flying in the vicinity of the forest, right in front of them. Alyx made a small sound, making it seem like a curse word had been said. Gordon wasn't too far from saying whatever came to mind, which was simply the word "Fuck".

The Hunter-Chopper, that was in front of them, when it appeared seemingly out of thin air, had been ignorant to them, which was good, since being ants compared to the larger Combine machinery had it pros and cons. Well, they could slip by with using silence.

Again, God was not on Gordon's side.

Apparently, the Hunter-Chopper – this chopper especially – had been gifted with a special scanner that search for body temperatures in that part of the oak evergreen forest. The aerial machine had been now keen with knowledge of them being in the forest, and it showed how pissed it was for being fooled by the beautiful scenery. Merciless, the Hunter-Chopper shot in a small clearing, where they once one. Intelligently, the two ran as fast as they could as soon as they heard the Hunter-Chopper come on the scene.

And then, right there, to their horror, they heard boots and radio chatter then.

Again, Gordon was tempted to say "Fu"-

A blitzkrieg of sorts began in the forest, which the beautiful scenery was again ignored contemptuously by the Combine, who had an even-more contemptible desire to capture and/or kill Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance. Bullets haze by and to Freeman and Vance, but they quickly ran through the trees, to escape gunfire. The Combine soldiers were blind to where the two were at, due the heavy forest-area after the clearing that the Hunter-Chopper found them in. Radio talk began noisily in the forest; murmurs of where and how to find the two blazed their radios, and unfortunately not the next time they were going to sit down and play darts around the usual table in a Combine bar, wherever that may be.

Gordon hid behind tree after tree, but kept seeing the same bullet hole in different positions on different trees. The pulsating rifles shot by the Overwatch soliders were heard easily, despite where they were at. Alyx was two trees up before him, as he clutched onto his shotgun. Suddenly, Gordon heard boot steps to his side and to his left, he saw a Combine come out and try to headbutt him. He quickly, doing something again found only in movies and video games, kicked the solider to his side. Gordon's martial arts tactic only brought a small grunt out of the transhuman soldier, which Gordon then quickly used his sword, the crowbar to smack the soldier's gun on his hands before Gordon was to be shot and killed. Gordon then with such brute force forced the "blade" into the soldier's shoulder, digging the crowbar further in to incapacitate the use of his right arm.

_No more gun for you_, he thought, grunting at him trying to actually pry off the enemies right arm permanently. The soldier was too busy hollering in radio chatter, perhaps calling his buddies for help. _Can't have that_; Gordon grinned sadistically at that thought. The grin wasn't left from the soldier's blue goggles and once at that second, the unnamed Combine felt how human he was, compared to the messiah, Gordon Freeman.

A shotgun's blast was only heard. It wasn't left alone – nearby Combine soldiers came running to the sound, as did Alyx Vance, who had once thought Gordon was right behind her. She called his name, and found the man she worked with prying out his bloody crowbar out the arm of the once breathing Combine soldier. Being the smart cookie she was, she sarcastically and somewhat awkwardly said, "Not one for subtly, huh, Gordon?"

He shrugged silently and said, "It gets the job done. Let's hurry before his buddies come and pick a fight with us."

She nodded and turned to run north to the mountain, as did he. He tried to not hear the angry chattering the radio fiends left. Ah, he wished this world was much easier than this sometimes, but then again, Mama said something almost easy does the trick too.

End.

A/N: Okay, might update again this week with Half-Life 2, Episode 3. I had fun typing this out. It was almost easy, if you will. Review, comment, say a little something. Until next time. See ya.


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